Double Chinese success at the IMG Future Stars with victories for Guo Ketong (girls) and Li Yanru (boys)

The third edition of the IMG Future Stars, a tournament dedicated to the best under-12s in the world saw two young Chinese success stories emerge

Daniel Gardalaity, Li Yanru, Guo Ketong and Elizaveta Anikina, IMG Future Stars 2024 | © Tennis Majors

Antoine Apelbaum

April 28, 2024

Cédric Rouquette

There are few opportunities to see the best male and female tennis players in the world compete in the U12 category. The IMG Future Stars, organised for the past three years on the initiative of the sports events company IMG, reinforced its international standing by crowning two young Chinese champions on Sunday in Athens: Guo Ketong in the girls’ singles category and Li Yanru in the boys’ competition.

Guo Ketong, who just celebrated her 11th birthday, was the big revelation of the week in the girls’ category. In the final, she dominated the tournament favourite, Estonia’s Elizaveta Anikina, who had not dropped a set in four meetings and had won the Auray tournament earlier this year.

Guo Ketong stole the final 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, however, in more than 2 hours of play, just as she had snatched victory in the previous two rounds, including a quarter-final that lasted more than three hours.

The final was played in challenging conditions, with gusty winds making rallies largely unpredictable. The Chinese player’s game plan, which consisted of drawing Anikina to the net with drop shots, was what made the difference.

LI YANRU flies THROUGH THE MEN’S TOURNAMENT

The weather had calmed down for the boys’ final between China’s Li Yanru, a resident (like Anikina) of the Mouratoglou academy, and American Daniel Gardalaity. Li flew threw the final just as easily as he had cruised through the tournament. After a first set that was in tune with the rest of his week (6-1), Li had to hold off Gardalaity in the second and, in particular, saved a point at 5-5 when he was leading 5-2 (6-1, 6-2).

Played in front of a hundred people on the clay of the Tatoï Club, the IMG Future Stars finals also saw a week of meetings and workshops, sponsored by Patrick Mouratoglou (co-founder of Tennis Majors), Holger Rune and Francisco Cerundolo, who spoke with the players and their families on the opening day.